


Ink

by lar_laughs



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Community: sga_saturday, F/M, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-04
Updated: 2011-12-04
Packaged: 2017-10-26 20:54:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/287745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lar_laughs/pseuds/lar_laughs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ronon wants nothing else but to share his world with Amelia but he holds back because of the memory of how he moved too quickly to share it with Jennifer.  Now she has to convince him that she <i>wants</i> to be a part of his life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ink

The Satedan colony was a sad place. The few huts were nothing compared to what Sateda had been when it collapsed, full of thousands of people who had lost their lives because of a few that were arrogant enough to think they could handle the Wraith with words when actions were what was needed. Still, Ronon went back, time and time again, because it meant something to him to have this place to escape to when he felt that he might be attaching himself too deeply to the people of Atlantis.

Jennifer had gone with him once under the guise of medical checkups for the refugees, taking great pleasure in her work but none at all in her surroundings. She’d found it a sad place. “It’s full of ghosts,” she mentioned as they made their way back to the Stargate, her pack on her own back because she’d refused to let him help her. It was a fight he’d quit having with her. “Everyone is still talking about how great Sateda was. Why don’t they look to the future and see if they can’t rebuild something even better?”

He’d physically recoiled from the words but hadn’t let her see how the words affected him. Instead, he’d stayed silent. Better for her to think that he agreed with her in his silence than to hear how she’d hurt him with her words. She’d never lost anything or anyone before. Her parents were still alive in the same house she’d grown up in. Her grandparents were old now and lived in a community of older people but they still sent her gifts and letters. When he’d asked about her ancestors, she’d looked puzzled and changed the subject. It seemed that ghosts were not something that Jennifer liked talking about.

When Amelia asked to join him, he almost turned her down. They’d only just come back from Earth and he wanted to check with his friends to make sure they had stayed well while he’d been gone for those months. To bring another visitor with him meant that he might not get to talk to everyone and hear their stories. If Amelia proved to be of the same mind as Jennifer, he wasn’t sure he wanted her tagging along.

When she waited patiently for his decision, neither pushing for an answer or walking away in disgust at his silence, he saw once again that she was nothing like Jennifer. In her own way, she was more like Teyla or even John, who understood that he couldn’t be pushed. His ways were not like the ways of the people of Earth, who rushed everywhere and talked things over until the situation was unbearable or non-existent. He thought things through but only to ponder if he was making the right decision. His silences didn’t mean he was going to say no just as his smiles didn’t always mean yes.

So they set across the table from one another, silent and watchful. He wanted to say yes on the grounds that he wanted to show her off but he worried that it would ruin everything they had come to mean to each other. She was a warrior with the quick mind of a tech and the body of a fighter. Sheppard had allowed her to come on some of their raids while on Earth and she had proved herself each and every time so that even Rodney was impressed by what she could do.

Most importantly, she had allowed him into her world. They had visited the grave of her brother, killed in action along with most of the SG team he’d served with. When Ronon had commented on the vastness of white stones that marked other fallen soldiers, she had tried to explain the burial ceremonies of her people. “Arlington is a place where people can come to mourn but also to marvel. This place reminds us that we’ve had people who have fought for our country for hundreds of years.”

A drop in the bucket when it came to the thousands of years that Sateda had flourished. Still, their history had been in words and not in stone. While it was different, it was not so different that he couldn’t appreciate what the place stood for.

She had taken him to her home to meet her mother and father, a happy couple with their share of pain but big enough hearts to accept his differences. They had made him feel more welcome than nearly anyone else he met on Earth. They had given him a gift when he left – a keychain that proudly bore the motto “Banks Auto – Come Try Us Out” in silver letters with a single, silver key hanging from it. “You’re family now,” Mr. Banks had stated in a gruff voice. “You’re welcome any time.” Amelia had explained to him later what the significance of the gesture meant and he’d felt bad that he hadn’t been more moved at the time.

To bring Amelia with him to the colony was like giving her a key. Once he put his stamp of approval on her, she would be welcome there any time. There would be no going back. The thought made him hard with desire as he thought of being able to mark her as his in other ways, including the unique tattoo he wanted to put on her body so that no man would look at her with the same desire he felt for her. She would be his. This was just the first step.

“I’m not Jennifer,” she said quietly and he stiffened. He stood up, eager to be moving as he dealt with this sudden twist. He’d never told her how he’d brought the woman with him, careless of the situation as he’d tried to put his mark on her too quickly. He wondered if it had been Teyla, or perhaps John, who had told her the story. Whoever it was, he was glad they’d mentioned it to her. Amelia hadn’t taken her question lightly.

When he still didn’t answer, she moved so that she was in front of him, on her tip toes to be able to put a hand on either side of his face, her fingers threading through the hair above his ears. He’d shaved his dreads so that he wouldn’t stand out so much while on Earth. Now she was able to run her hand through his hair, something he discovered he liked very much.

“I’m not going to demand that you take me.” Her dark eyes penetrated his soul so that he couldn’t look away from her. Each word that she uttered went straight to his heart, reminding him once again why he’d chosen her. She was fighting him for his heart and she would win because she was more than capable of defeating him with the weapons she had at her disposal. “But I want you to know why I asked. I understand about losing someone special and I understand about looking for some place to call home in a strange, new place. Believe me, I understand.

“So hear me out when I say that I want to share this with you. I’ve seen Sateda as it is now and I’ve heard your stories but I want to see what the people have accomplished in remaking their home. I want to hear other stories so that I understand everything that I missed and everything that I’m seeing. Until then, I’ll never love it like you do.”

He sank to his knees so that he was holding her around her waist, his head pillowed on her breasts. Her heart was a staccato beat under his ear and the rise and fall of her chest told him when to breath.

“I can’t say no to you. Not with that plea.” When he looked up, her eyes had filled with tears. “Why are you crying? I told you that you could come.”

She bit her bottom lip as her hand came up to smooth his hair away from his face. “I can’t imagine not ever having met you. What would by life be like if I’d decided to leave the military after Adam died? I would have missed my chance to have you in my life.”

“No, our destinies were always intertwined. We would have found each other.” Those words gave off a spark of inspiration. He reached up to tug the pen out of Amelia’s pocket and began to trace a few lines on his upper arm with the black ink. “This is the markings that we will get while we’re there this time. They will be the same markings to show people that we share a destiny.”

She watched as he finished the drawing before rolling her sleeve up to show her upper arm. “Now, on me.”

“We aren’t in the colony yet. This is just practice. To see how it looks.”

“Then let me practice wearing your mark on my skin. Please, Ronon. I want them to understand how important you are to me.”

He knew she didn’t mean the other people on Atlantis because few of them saw the significance of his markings. Many of them sported tattoos but few told a life of stories in a single swish of ink. If Amelia turned up to dinner with a mark on her skin, few of them would look at her twice.

But if she walked into the Satedan colony with this call of destiny on her skin, it would bind her to him in their eyes. They would see and understand what it was that passed between them. They would know to give them one room and not two if they asked to stay the night. Amelia’s place would always be assumed to be right next to him instead of mingled with the other females. They would show her the deference due a female warrior for he would pick no other.

It was everything he’d dreamed about yet had been too frightened to ask out loud. Her words were like beautiful music in a room where there had been nothing but noise before.

With quick strokes of the pen held in his shaking hand, the twin markings were complete. He leaned back against her, his breathing shallow as he fought against his baser urges that demanded he complete the process and take her here and now, no matter that they were in the middle of a busy Mess Hall right after lunch.

Once again, she read his mind. Tugging him up to stand beside her, she gripped his hand in hers and began pulling him from the room. “My room. It’s closer. I’ve got an hour before I have to report back to the gate room.”

“How did you know-“

She winked at him, her smile sly as she led them through groups of people unable to get out of their way fast enough. “It’s not rocket science, my friend. Besides, I would have tried this earlier but I didn’t want you to think I was trying to coerce you into saying yes to my request. I figured we’d get to it sooner or later.”

“If you’d told me this would be the outcome, I would have made it sooner.”

This earned him a wicked smile over her shoulder as she pulled him ever closer to their destination. At the doorway, he stopped her. He smudged the ink at her shoulder. “This isn’t permanent. You can still back out.”

Her only response was to slug him, hard, in the stomach and pull him into her room. It was all the answer he needed.


End file.
